Incredible!! Fantastic!! Sensational!!

9/6/2005 – All those words (on the tournament web site) cannot fully describe the stellar performance of China's young star Wang Hao in the 2nd IGB Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005. This kid, who only turned 16 in April this year, won this event two full points ahead of the GM field, with a performance of 2843. Read all about it in Edwin Lam's extensive report.

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2nd IGB Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005

By Edwin Lam Choong Wai

It’s now almost 3.30 pm on the 19th of August 2005. I had just arrived at
Mid Valley City, Kuala Lumpur with International Master Atanu Lahiri. We were
due to attend the Opening Ceremony of the Malaysian Chess Festival 2005, the
three-week long chess extravaganza, which incorporates the back-to-back events
of the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia
Open 2005, the Chevrolet Chess Challenge, the Malaysia Open Blitz Championship
2005, the 25th ASTRO Merdeka Chess Championships and the FIDE Zonal 3.3 Championships
(a world title qualifying event). This plethora of international chess events
run from the 20th of August to the 10th of September 2005.

The Prime Minister’s Office (left) in Putrajaya, the state-of-the-art
and
ecologically friendly new administrative capital of Malaysia

While IM Atanu headed directly for MPH Bookstores in Mid
Valley Megamall to check out the latest offerings of chess books there,
I went straight up to the 5th Floor of Cititel
Mid Valley, where the Opening Ceremony was due to start at 4.00 pm. As
I stepped in front of the doorway of Bintang Ballroom – where the ceremony
was due to be held – I already noticed a bee-hive of activities going-on inside.

Upon signing up at the Reception, I stepped into the ballroom. A couple of
familiar faces from last year’s 1st IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2004
such as GM Ian Rogers, IM Sriram Jha, WGM S. Vijayalakshimi, IM Tan Lian Ann
and WIM Zhang Jilin were already seated inside. Besides these players, other
elite players who had turned up for the ceremony include the 16-year old teenage
sensation Wang Hao of China, GM Koneru Humpy of India and IM Hossain Enamul
of Bangladesh. Other familiar names that were already there at the ceremony
include former Editor of Chess Life Larry Parr, chess columnist for
The Star Quah Seng Sun and the Treasurer of Chess Association of
Selangor (CAS) Thaw Chee Yin.

It was a case of renewing ties with old friends as well as getting to know
new faces. As I roamed around the ballroom, I got to know James Kobes. James,
a Canadian who is now working and living in South Korea, came all the way to
Kuala Lumpur to participate in the tournament – thanks partly it seems, to
my earlier articles on Chessbase! Then, I bumped into IM Sriram Jha of India.
Again, he found my Chessbase articles informative and helpful. I am indeed,
flattered by his comments. A little while later, two Oz-mates, FM Brian Jones
and his son, FM Lee Jones walked into the ballroom. The be-spectacled FM Brian
Jones is the Editor of Australian Chess. It was a pleasure, indeed,
to have met them and I am honored to be given the opportunity to contribute
photos taken during the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005 for the
upcoming issue of Australian Chess.

As the clock approaches 4.00 pm, the ballroom is almost filled up with guests,
representatives of the sponsors and the players. Reporters and photographers
from most major local dailies were already here – clicking away their cameras
while also interviewing the VIPs, organizers and representatives of the various
sponsors. The VIPs present include Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Tan Chin Nam (Organizing
Chairman of the Malaysian Chess Festival 2005), Borhanuddin Osman (Executive
Director of ASTRO), Anthony Barragry (Executive Director of Mid Valley
City), Norzahid Mohd Zahudi (Chief Executive Officer of HICOMOBIL, the
authorized distributor of Chevrolet cars in Malaysia) and Yang Berbahagia
Dato’ Sieh Kok Chi (Honorary Secretary of the Olympic Council of Malaysia).

The guest-of-honor scheduled to officiate the Malaysian Chess Festival 2005,
Yang Berhormat Datuk Dr. Leo Michael Toyad, the Minister of Tourism Malaysia,
was unable to attend the ceremony. He was represented at the event by Yang
Berbahagia Datuk Dr. Victor Wee (Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism
Malaysia). Besides Yang Berhormat Datuk Dr. Leo Michael Toyad, Baillieu
Myer of Australia was also unable to attend the ceremony.

The ceremony began with a Welcome Address by the Organizing Chairman, Dato’
Tan Chin Nam. Keeping his speech short and brief, first of all, he welcomed
all the chess players who have come not only from around Malaysia, but also
from continents as far away as the USA, Australia, France and Japan, to participate
in the chess festival. He also thanked Datuk Dr. Victor Wee and Dato’ Sieh
Kok Chi for their presence at the ceremony. After that, he went on to thank
not only the major corporate sponsors (IGB Corporation Berhad, ASTRO and HICOMOBIL),
but also individual sponsors, most notably being his long-time friend and colleague
Baillieu Myer of Australia, who have contributed various amounts to make this
festival a success.

In his speech, Dato’ Tan also touched on the subject of muhibah in
chess. Muhibbah is a term in the Malay language, which represents
the growing understanding between one another that leads to togetherness and
unity. As he aptly put it in the souvenir’s program, “… I have never seen anything
promote muhibah or cultural understanding so deeply as chess”. Chess,
with over 156 (including its two recent membership additions of Sierra Leone
and Palau at its 76th Congress in Dresden) national federations affiliated
to the World Chess Federation (FIDE), is widely touted as the second most played
sport in the world after football / soccer. According to Dato’ Tan, when it
comes to building global ties that cut through national boundaries, chess enables
the successful forging of lifelong friendships of the mind.

Datuk Dr. Victor Wee, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia

Dato’ Tan’s Welcome Address was followed by the speech by Yang Berbahagia
Datuk Dr. Victor Wee (Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia)
to officiate the Malaysian Chess Festival 2005. This was followed by the check
presentation ceremonies of the various major sponsors, namely IGB Corporation
Berhad, ASTRO, HICOMOBIL and Baillieu Myer. A short press conference followed
thereafter, before the VIPs, dignitaries, guests and members of the media adjourned
to have some food and refreshments.

The Official Hotel and Official Venue for the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia
Open 2005, the Chevrolet Chess Challenge, the 25th ASTRO Merdeka Chess Championships
and the Malaysia Open Blitz Championship 2005 are Cititel Mid Valley and Mid
Valley Exhibition Center, respectively. The Official Hotel and Venue for the
Zonal 3.3 Championships is Stanford Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

2nd Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005

The 2nd Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005 ran from the 20th to the 26th
of August 2005. Playing at a time control of one-and-a-half hour with 30 seconds
increment per player, this 11-round FIDE rated event attracted a field of 70
participants. Out of the 70 players, 64 of them are FIDE-rated players and
out of this number 39 of them are titled players. With 12 GMs, 2 WGMs, 10 IMs,
2 WIMs, 10 FMs and 3 WFMs competing, this event is bound to be highly competitive.

This year’s event attracted a multitude of entrants from various continents
across the globe. Looking across the tournament hall, from Koji Noguchi of
Japan to Son Asia of Kazakhstan to Chong Chor Yuen of Hong Kong, Stephane Sorbe
of France, Carl Haessler of the USA and WFM Yang Ning of China, one sees a
myriad of nationalities. This definitely proves the point that competitive
chess is an excellent melting pot of cultures, much in the spirit of muhibah
across boundaries!

With 18 countries represented in this event – ranging from Russia, Kazakhstan
and France, Japan and Hong Kong to Australia and the United States, besides
the traditional Asian chess powerhouses China, Philippines, Indonesia, India
and Vietnam – it is truly a unique experience for everyone. As for the Who’s
Who in the chess circle, we have here at the 2nd Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia
Open 2005 distinguished players such as GM Eugenio Torre (Asia’s first Grandmaster),
GM Utut Adianto, GM Rogelio Antonio, GM Dao Thien Hai, GM Ian Rogers, GM Koneru
Humpy, Wang Hao, GM Moussa Taleb and GM Abhijit Kunte.

“Typhoon Wang Hao”

Whereas GM Ni Hua won the title last year by scoring 8.5 points out of 11
rounds, “typhoon Wang Hao”, literally speaking, blew everyone away with
a score of 10 points (two points ahead of nearest rival GM Rogelio Antonio)
out of 11 rounds this year! With clear blue skies on the eve of the 2nd Dato’
Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005, little would one expect “typhoon Wang Hao” to
strike in tropical Malaysia. Keeping pace with the leaders in the early rounds,
Wang Hao took the lead after Round 5 with a victory over GM Eugenio Torre.
From then on, there was no stopping of Wang Hao. One after another – GM Nelson
Mariano, GM Wu Shaobin, IM Jayson Gonzales and IM Situru Nathanael – tried
stopping Wang Hao in the subsequent rounds, to no avail.

After Round 7, Wang Hao already has a one-point lead over the rest of the
field and by the end of Round 9 the lead has swelled to two points (having
amassed a total score of 8.5 points out of 9 rounds!). With two more rounds
to go, only five other players (with 6.5 points each) are within a shout of
equaling but not overhauling the total points scored by Wang Hao. These five
players are GM Utut Adianto, GM Ian Rogers, GM Eugenio Torre, GM Rogelio Antonio
and IM Jayson Gonzales. In Round 10, GM Utut Adianto was paired to play against
Wang Hao. GM Adianto, who was playing Black, chose the reliable and solid Caro-Kann
against the very aggressive Wang Hao. Queens were traded on move 26 and by
the 35th move, a draw was agreed.

16-year old teenage sensation Wang Hao of China

With this draw, Wang Hao had amassed an unassailable lead and won the 2nd
Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005, with one round to spare! Looking back
at my earlier
article on Chessbase, it seems that my premonition of GM-elect Wang Hao
pulling off another upset win here came through even before the start of the
final round of the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005! Coming off
his triumph of the 7th Dubai Open approximately four months’ back ahead of
more than 53 Grandmasters and 30 International Masters, Wang Hao certainly
made his victory here look like child’s play.

In the final round Wang Hao faced experienced GM Ian Rogers of Australia.
The game started as a quiet English Opening, with Wang Hao playing the black
pieces. It could have been a quick draw, but not when this boy is involved.
This is how the game developed.

Whatever it is, one thing’s for sure: If he had stunned observers worldwide
with his triumph in Dubai, he further cemented his arrival on the scene by
crashing his way through to win the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open
2005. More amazingly, he has not yet been formally conferred the title of Grandmaster,
yet! Thus, from a wordsmith’s point of view, Wang Hao’s triumph can only be
described with a list of superlatives!

Sensational, incredible, fantastic, outrageously incredible, out of this world
and simply magnificent are a sample of these superlatives to describe the triumph
of this prodigious teenager! As he only turned 16 in April this year, I must
stress here that he is only still a teenager! So, there will definitely many
more great things that we will see of him in the coming future.

Youth’s triumph over experience…

GM-to-be Wang Hao’s triumph over veteran GMs in this event symbolized the
arrival of the next generation of chess players in Asia. Of course, he was
not the only young star who lighted up the 2nd Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open
2005. The encouraging performance of a few other young Turks in the event is
certainly worth a mention in this article. On the local front, our very own
FM Lim Yee Weng and FM Nicholas Chan played exceptionally well throughout the
tournament and I am willing to bet my money on either one or even the both
of them attaining their IM title soon. The much younger FM Anas Nazreen Bakri
also did the nation proud by winning the Best Under-16 prize. The two brothers
- Melvin and Marco Yu – of Hong Kong also showed great improvements in their
game, compared to their debut in this event a year ago.

Christer Aplin of Singapore

Christer Aplin of Singapore also did exceptionally well to finish with 5 points
to be crowned as the Best Under-12 participant of the event. Playing with great
maturity, I saw how he imaginatively wrangled himself out of trouble in his
Round 9 game against the wily, Lim Kian Hwa. Lim Kian Hwa is one of the strongest
and most experienced players from the state of Sarawak. In the course of the
game, Christer – playing Black – found his Queen trapped in the opening. Looking
grim, but determined, Christer thought for almost half-an-hour before executing
his next move – which involves trading his trapped Queen for the Bishop pair.
Combining the powers of the Bishop-pair as well as pawn advances along the
g- and h-files towards the White King, Christer created mating threats on Kian
Hwa’s monarch. With mounting threats on his King, Kian Hwa made a mistake and
Christer seize the chance to force checkmate! Play well, Christer! Your journey
is only beginning.

Thean Hou Temple, Kuala Lumpur

Of “Santa Claus”… and Mafia look-alikes

Just like the Najdorf-syndrome, “hungry” players and the “secret” of the Filipinos’
success in last
year’s event, there are definitely colorful characters and characteristics
in every event. This year’s 2nd Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open is also well
decorated with quite a few recognizable faces.

Saudara Panggabean Hasien of Indonesia (Saudara is the very
polite way of addressing fellow brethren here in the Malay Archipelago) is
probably one of the friendliest and nicest persons around. Never failing to
greet anyone he knows at the tournament hall with a firm handshake and a little
bow, his character adds color to the tournament. But, most interestingly, he
is also exceptionally fond of presenting ‘gifts’ to anyone whom he meets or
fought in a game at the tournament. Always happy-go-lucky and jolly, perhaps
he is the “real Santa” who is disguising as a chess player?

Just like saudara Panggabean Hasien, IM Denny Juswanto is another jolly
character in the tournament. He is also another player who came back to this
year’s edition of the 2nd Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open, after having had
a pleasant tournament last year. IM Denny, never looked like the serious player
who ‘kill’ opponents with his look, definitely proves the notion of never ever
judging a book by its cover!

The intimidating-looking FM Sales

If IM Denny likes to clown around, then FM Jesse Noel Sales seemed to be the
total opposite. Fresh from winning the 2005 Australian Masters in July 2005,
FM Sales’ build, size and clean shaven head coupled with intentionally putting
on his sunglasses during every game can be psychologically intimidating! To
the weak-hearted, it can be quite daunting to compete on equal grounds against
the Mafia look-alike FM Sales! But, looks are deceiving. FM Sales is definitely
one of the mildest mannered, jovial and friendly people around. Apparently,
we know a mutual friend – David Cordover of Melbourne. It turned out that FM
Sales will soon be joining David’s chess coaching team in Melbourne!

What a coincidence! I used to work as a coach under David’s set-up when I
was a student in Melbourne.

All’s well ends well…

All good things must come to an end. As the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia
Open 2005 drew to a close, there was a tinge of void and sadness in our hearts.
It had, indeed, been a hectic one-week of competitive chess, and yet the friendship
made during the event would last a lifetime. In the last round, Wang Hao defeated
GM Ian Rogers to cap a perfect tournament with 9 wins with just 2 draws conceded
to GM Rogelio and GM Adianto. On table 2, GM Rogelio Antonio defeated GM Dao
Thien Hai to finish clear second behind Wang Hao with a score of 8 points.

GM Antonio contemplating hard before making his next move against GM Dao
Thien Hai of Vietnam in their final round game

On the local front, FM Nicholas Chan, FM Lim Yee Weng and FM Mok Tze Meng
claimed the top three Best Malaysian prizes respectively. FM Lee Jones and
FM Brian Jones received the top two Best Australian prizes respectively. Wang
Hao was the biggest winner of the Incentive Prize to encourage decisive results,
as he won four games against Grandmasters.

Campo delivering his closing speech

The Closing Ceremony was held on the 26th of August 2005 at 3.00 pm. The ceremony
was graced by the presence of FIDE Honorary President Florencio Campomanes
of the Philippines. Also present at the ceremony were International Arbiter
Maung Maung Lwin of Mynamar, Kung Suan Ai (Director of Advertising and Promotions,
Mid Valley Megamall), Ibrahim Bakar (Vice President of the Malaysian Chess
Federation) and Joyce Quek (Assistant Manager – Advertising & Promotions,
Mid Valley Megamall). After a short speech by Campomanes (or, ‘Campo’ as he
is affectionately known), International Arbiter Hamid Majeed announced the
prize winners of the Chevrolet Chess Challenge. This was then followed by the
announcement of the prize winners for the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia
Open 2005.

GM Koneru Humpy of India, arguably one of the strongest women
players in the world, receiving her prize from Suan Ai

GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam

GM Eugenio Torre of the Philippines – Asia’s first Grandmaster

GM Abhijit Kunte of India receiving his prize from Campo

GM Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam shares a hearty laugh with Campo

GM Nelson Mariano of the Philippines

GM Ian Rogers of Australia

GM Rogelio Antonio receiving his prize from Campo, while Joyce
Quek and Haslindah Ruslan looked on

Wang Hao holding the Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open trophy

Chevrolet Chess Challenge 2005

Open for players with not more than FIDE Rating of 2200, the Chevrolet Chess
Challenge is fully sponsored by HICOMOBIL, the distributor of Chevrolet cars
here in Malaysia. The Chevrolet Chess Challenge 2005 is a 9-round FIDE-rated
event that ran concurrently with the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open
2005 from the 20th until the 26th of August 2005. The time control for this
event is the same as that for the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005
(90 minutes plus 30 seconds a move).

Attracting a total of 38 participants, this event does not lack an international
flair. The lanky Catherine Black, for example, hails from the Republic of South
Africa, Joan Toledo is from the Philippines, Srinivas Mantha is from India,
James Kobes is from Canada and Iwan Setiawan is from Indonesia. After 9 rounds,
veteran Malaysian player Kamaluddin Yusof emerged undefeated at the top of
the standings with 8.0 points and captured the top prize of RM 1,500. The only
other player in the field who also emerged undefeated is Fairin Zakaria, who
finished clear second with 7.0 points.

25th ASTRO Merdeka Team Chess Championship 2005

The 25th ASTRO Merdeka Team Chess Championship 2005 was held right after the
conclusion of both the 2nd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2005 and the
Chevrolet Chess Challenge. Supported for the third year running by ASTRO, Malaysia’s
first pay-TV channel, the Merdeka Team Chess Championship is the oldest team
chess tournament here in Malaysia. Traditionally held in the month of August
every year to commemorate the country’s Merdeka day celebrations, it
used to be an annual meeting place for chess buffs throughout Malaysia, Singapore,
Brunei and Indonesia. Over the past few years, this event has grown in stature
and the number of participants has swelled with players coming from around
the world.

The 25th ASTRO Merdeka Team Chess Championship

Scheduled to start on the 27th of August and finish on the 31st of August
2005, the team chess championship is made up of two back-to-back tournaments
with different time controls. The Merdeka Open Chess Championship 2005 was
held from the 27th until the 29th of August 2005. The time control for this
event is 1 hour plus and increment of 15 seconds from the first move. There
are two categories in this event – the Open and the Junior (Under 16). 50 teams
participated in the Open category and the tournament was clearly ruled by the
Filipinos right from the start.

In the end, team Tagaytay City of the Philppines topped the standings with
25.5 points after 8 rounds. Team Tagaytay City, powered by GM Rogelio Antonio
and GM Nelson Mariano on boards 1 and 2 respectively, was never really troubled
except for Round 7 when they were up against Heilongjiang of China. Heilongjiang
of China is made up of FM Wu Xi Bin, WIM Zhang Jilin, WFM Yang Ning and Wang
Xinyue. In the last round, Tagaytay City romped past the Singapore junior team
3.5 – 0.5 to win the title. Well, Rogelio, perhaps, sitting on ‘double-decked’
chairs is your team’s secret weapon for success?

PAEZ Dental Clinic of the Philippines and Manila Bangka (a joint team of players
from the Philippines, Indonesia and the USA) were tied at 22 points after 8
rounds. PAEZ got the better of Manila Bangka in the standings due to higher
Match Points. PAEZ was powered by the likes of Darwin Laylo, IM Ronald Dableo
and FM Oliver Dimakilling. Manila Bangka sees the strong combination of Deni
Sonjaya, FM Rico Salimbagat, Iwan Setiawan, FM Jesse Noel Sales and Anasrullah.
Heilongjiang of China finished clear fourth with 21.5 points.

FM Jesse Sales turning out for team Manila Bangka

Special prizes were also given out to various other teams. The Penang State
Senior team finished as the top State team with 19.5 points. Multimedia University
1 came out tops among the Institution of Higher Learning teams with 16 points
while DBKL bagged the top Government Department team prize.

The second event, played at a faster time control, began on the evening of
the 29th of August. This event, named the Merdeka Rapid Open Chess Championship
2005, has a time control of 25 minutes plus an increment of 10 seconds from
the first move. Played over 9 rounds, this event attracted a total of 36 teams.
After battling it out over 9 rounds, the Filipinos again proved too strong
for the rest of the teams. On the 31st of August, it was clear that Tagaytay
City – lead by GM Antonio and GM Mariano – would again emerge triumphant with
28.5 points. Their nearest rival, team Cabuyao Laguna of the Philippines finished
3 points behind Tagaytay City. Team Cabuyao was lead by FM Oliver Dimakilling
and IM Ronald Dableo. An excellent effort by the Chinese quartet of FM Wu Xi
Bin, WIM Zhang Jilin, WFM Yang Ning and Wang Xinyue (team Heilongjiang) prevented
another clean sweep of the top three places by the Filipinos in this tournament.
Team Heilongjiang completed the tournament with 22.5 points for third place.

Malaysia Open Blitz Championship 2005

The Malaysia Open Blitz Championship was held on the eve of Merdeka
day. Merdeka day is held every year to celebrate the independence of
this nation that came about on the 31st of August 1957 – 48 years ago. Attracting
a total of 94 players, this mammoth event starts at 7.00 pm on the 30th of
August 2005. After 9 rounds of blitz chess, the top 16 participants of the
Blitz event qualified for the knock-out stages. IM Tahir Vakhidov won the event
after beating IM Ronald Dableo in the final.

Zone 3.3 Open and Zone 3.3 Women Championships

From the 2nd of September 2005 until the 10th of September 2005, the Zonal
tournaments (Zone 3.3 Open and Zone 3.3 Women Championships) are to be held
here in Malaysia. Zone 3.3 is made up of countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia,
Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunie, Singapore,
East Timor, Mongolia, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Chinese Taipei

This is the zonal qualification for the upcoming FIDE World Championship Series.
The official venue and hotel for the event is Stanford Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
Located along the bustling and lively Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Stanford Hotel
is easily accessible via the KL Monorail.

As you read this article, the Zonal tournaments are still going on. Do drop
by to take a look at the tournament if you are around here in Kuala Lumpur,
the city that is ‘Truly Asia’. Alternatively, you can keep abreast with
the news and daily updates of the event at Malaysia
Chess Federation’s website.

In Retrospect

Indeed, it has been a very exciting month of August for Malaysian chess. With
so many back-to-back tournaments held one after the other here in Kuala Lumpur,
this will only spark greater interests in the game, not only among local chess
communities but also regionally too. With a further increase in the total prize
fund for the 3rd IGB Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysia Open 2006 to USD 18,000 next
year, I can only see the stature of the tournament becoming bigger and better.
It will, I am sure, attract even more top players from around the world to
participate in the event. Here, I would like to thank Frederic, Andre, Ben
and Mig of Chessbase for all the support this year. It has been great being
one of Chessbase’s many global correspondents and I hope to be able to write
better and snap greater pictures for future reports on Chess – the game of
the Kings – here in the Far East! Let me end this article with three nice pictures
taken during sunset – one at Port Klang, the second one in Kuala Lumpur and
the final one at Putrajaya, the new state-of-the-art administrative capital
of Malaysia.

Sunset in Port Klang

Sunset in Kuala Lumpur

The serenity of Lake Putrajaya at sunset

About the Author

Highly
passionate about the game, but having only recently obtained his FIDE rating,
Edwin Lam is a seasoned player in his home country of Malaysia.
Working full-time as a Public Affairs Manager in an American multinational
here in Kuala Lumpur, he enjoys motor racing (Formula 1, Formula Nippon and
the Japan GT Championships), besides photography and traveling. Whenever he
is not busy with his other passions, he invests his time and effort towards
chess, especially in chess analysis. From analysis and annotations (following
in the great footsteps of Botvinnik, Timman and countless other chess greats),
he accidentally stumbled upon writing chess articles as a hobby. Having written
chess articles for close to six years already, he is now a correspondent for
Chess Asia, a Philippine-based chess magazine. Besides that, his articles have
also appeared at one time or another in Chess Kids, a Melbourne-based quarterly
periodical ran by David Cordover, as well as the GMChess website. A chess artist
at heart, he is most impressed by the games of Keres, Bronstein, Tal and Petrosian.
This, however, does not stop him from marveling at the clarity and ease of
the scientific approach outlined by Botvinnik. With a large library of chess
books and magazines at home in multiple languages – from English to German
to French and Russian – he primarily ranks Bronstein’s 1953 Zurich International
Chess Tournament and Alekhine’s 1924 New York International Chess Tournament
as the best books of all time. Recently, he wrote a nice profile about GM Yasser
Seirawan that appeared in ChessCafe.com. His other articles that have appeared
on Chessbase.com are:

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The Exchange Variation (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3) is a simple and easy to learn answer to the Caro-Kann. By clarifying the central tension White gives himself a clear plan of attack using the half open e-file and the e5 square. This is far from easy for Black to meet as Bobby Fischer, Jan Timman, Walter Browne and other leading Grandmasters have demonstrated in their games. Black too has his resources but he needs to know what he's doing. On this DVD you will find a clear explanation of the strategy for both sides as well as answers to popular treatments such as 4...Nc6 5.c3 Qc7. Whilst the main focus is on the White side of this opening you will also find ways for Black to defend.